Author: Arlene Wszalek

The joy of having a mailing list with a few hundred recipients is that when I send out news, I get responses. Sometimes, a few hundred of them. That happened most recently when I sent out my “good news to share” missive explaining that I am cancer-free after my surgery. The only problem is that…

It’s been fascinating and heart-warming to engage with so many people in the middle of the year. I’m used to it at holiday time, this sharing of news and good cheer, but not in July-August. I’m actually having trouble keeping up with all the emails. It’s been fascinating to HAVE to sit back and accept…

Dr. Friedman’s office called and asked to move up my post-op to this afternoon. So Tom raced home from work and accompanied me to what turned out to be a very good meeting. The good doctor very happily reported that the cancer was entirely contained within my now-departed uterus. Everything else they sampled turned up…

I walked two laps around Fashion Square today. Oh, all right, with a wee rest in between. But still.

We arrived home from the hospital a bit ago. Surgery went as well as could be expected. They didn’t have to take my aortic lymph nodes, and the flash freeze of my now-departed pelvic lymph nodes showed no cancer. The full pathology report will come back next week, but we have every reason to be…

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am as instructed, and are currently in the surgery waiting room. They won’t take me to be prepped until about 6am. I’m finaly feeling a bit nervous – not so much for the surgey itself, bit for what comes immediately after. My stomach is rumbling, an astounding feat considering…

With apologies for the scatological pun… As a requirement of my surgery, my intestines must be empty. This involves a liquid diet for today and tomorrow. And just to be sure, two 10-ounce bottles of Magensium Citrate. Dr. Friedman suggested that I take the first bottle at bedtime on Saturday night, “as it takes about…

Had my pre-op with Dr. Friedman yesterday. Naturally, my first question was whether I could  bring my laptop/iPhone to the hospital with me. (Yes – as long as Tom is watching it while I’m in surgery/recovery.) He and a nurse-practitioner examined me. He seemed cheerful and optimistic about the surgery. He remains confident that he’ll…

I don’t see the oncologist until Thursday morning (9th), but my GP called to let me know that the report on my CT scan is that it shows “no evidence of metastatic disease.” That would seem to indicate, pending confirmation from the oncologist, that a hysterectomy may do the trick on its own. So we’re…

Many people (all of them women; understandable, seeing as men don’t have an immediate concern about uterine cancer) have asked me how I came to be diagnosed. The answer is: with thanks to a vigilant gynecologist. The timeline goes something like this. On January 20 2009 (I know this because it was Inauguration Day), I began…